California county's federal assistance request rejected

On Tuesday, federal authorities denied Santa Cruz’s request for federal aid to assist with cleanup efforts from the storms that pelted the region in March; the heavy rain caused $17 million in damage from floods and mudslides across the county; FEMA said the storms that hit California “were not severe, continuous and were not beyond the combined capabilities of the state and affected local governments”

On Tuesday, federal authorities denied Santa Cruz’s request for federal aid to assist with cleanup efforts from the storms that pelted the region in March. The heavy rain caused $17 million in damage from floods and mudslides across the county.

In a letter to California governor Jerry Brown, W. Craig Fugate, the head of FEMA, said the agency determined that the storms that hit California “were not severe, continuous and were not beyond the combined capabilities of the state and affected local governments.”

Santa Cruz officials say the decision will make recovery difficult and strain local budgets.

County Supervisor Mark Stone said, “That is going to be devastating in our budget to try and fix it.”

Stone’s district was hit by a rockslide on 21 March that caused $2.5 million in damages.

Stone wondered, “I don’t know where we will get the money if we don’t get state and federal help.”

In contrast, Capitola councilman Kirby Nicol was more understanding of FEMA’s decision.

“It’s pretty hard to argue with FEMA’s rationale for denying the claim,” he said. “We are not Tuscaloosa. We are not Joplin. Our disaster was relatively small compared to those. FEMA has budgets and limitations, as well.”

Capitola was hit by flash floods on 24 March and 26 March that caused a drainpipe to rupture.

According to Kelly Huston, a spokeswoman for the California Emergency Management Agency, the state has thirty days to file an appeal and Governor Brown is currently deciding whether or not to question FEMA’s decision.

“We still stand by the emergency request for a federal declaration even though FEMA said that they believe it was three separate storms and three separate events that don’t rise to the level of a federal disaster declaration,” Huston said. “We do believe it was one storm series.”